Contents
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Immigration and Asylum
Race Relations
Race Equality
Racism
Other Holyrood
Other Westminster / Other News
Bills in Progress
Consultations
Events/Conferences/Training Courses
Useful Links
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Immigration and Asylum
Holyrood Parliamentary QuestionsSandra White (S2W-20679): To ask the Scottish Executive how many of its officials were directly involved, either in a monitoring or consultative role, during raids to remove the children of asylum seekers living in Scotland in each year since 2002.
Rosie Kane (S2O-8168): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the same criteria apply to applications under the Fresh Talent initiative from Africans as to applications from Canadians.
Bill Butler (S2W-20236): To ask the Scottish Executive how many meetings have been held between its officials and Home Office officials regarding the development of a protocol covering all removals of the children of asylum seeker families in Scotland.
Reply from Robert Brown: Three
Bill Butler (S2W-20237): To ask the Scottish Executive how many meetings have taken place at ministerial level with the Home Office in respect of the development of a protocol covering all removals of the children of asylum seeker families in Scotland and which ministers have taken part.
Reply from Robert Brown: There have been two ministerial meetings on the development of an agreement with the Home Office. These meetings have involved Home Office Ministers and the First Minister.
Immigration and Asylum
Holyrood Parliamentary Questions (continued)
Bill Butler ((S2W-20241): To ask the Scottish Executive whether discussions on the terms of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as they apply to the children of asylum seeker families has formed part of negotiations with the Home Office on the development of a protocol covering all removals of the children of asylum seeker families in Scotland.
Reply from Robert Brown: Discussions with the Home Office on the detail of an agreement covering the removal of children are on-going and it would be wrong to comment on the content at this stage. Once agreement is reached, ministers will report back to the Parliament.
Bill Butler (S2W-20242): To ask the Scottish Executive when the negotiation process with the Home Office on the development of a protocol covering all removals of the children of asylum seeker families in Scotland is expected to conclude.
Reply from Robert Brown: Discussions with the Home Office are progressing. Work will be completed as quickly as possible.
Bill Butler ((S2W-20243): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans the First Minister has to meet the Home Secretary to ratify the protocol covering all removals of the children of asylum seeker families in Scotland once negotiations are concluded.
Reply from Robert Brown: Arrangements for formalising an agreement with the Home Office are part of discussions about the agreement itself. Once agreement is reached, ministers will report back to the Parliament.
Sandra White (S2W-20378): To ask the Scottish Executive how many meetings its officials have had with colleagues at the Home Office with regard to the removal of asylum seeker families with children in Scotland since April 2005.
Reply from Robert Brown: Four.
Sandra White (S2W-20379): To ask the Scottish Executive how many times the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration has been in contact with officials at the Scottish Executive to express concern about the removal of asylum seekers’ children since January 2005.
Reply from Robert Brown: The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration has never been in contact with officials at the Scottish Executive to express any such concern.
Sandra White (S2W-20380): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to publish any legal advice it or any of its agencies hold regarding the remit of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 and how that Act applies to children of asylum seekers.
Reply from Robert Brown: We have no such plans.
Immigration and Asylum
Holyrood Parliamentary Questions (continued)
Sandra White (S2W-20381): To ask the Scottish Executive how it or its agencies monitor the care and protection of children referred to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration who are in the intervening investigation period deported by the Home Office.
Reply from Robert Brown: Once a child has been removed responsibility for the monitoring of care and protection rests with the authorities of the receiving state.
Sandra White (S2W-20382P): To ask the Scottish Executive how many children of asylum seekers who were referred to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration were referred on grounds that they were potentially at risk because they lived in the same household as an offender under Schedule 1 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1975, from 2003 to date.
Reply from Robert Brown: This is a matter for the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration and I have asked the Principal Reporter to write to you.
Sandra White (S2W-20383): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received any advice from clinical child psychologists on the potential psychological harm to children of asylum seekers who are referred to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration but deported before investigations by the Children’s Reporter were completed.
Reply from Robert Brown: No.
Sandra White (S2W-20384): To ask the Scottish Executive what average notification time it received from Home Office officials prior to them carrying out a removal of children of asylum seekers who may potentially have been subject to a referral to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration from January 2003 to November 2005.
Reply from Robert Brown: The removal of asylum seekers is a reserved matter. The Executive does not currently routinely receive notification prior to a removal being carried out.
Sandra White (S2W-20385): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-19584 by Robert Brown on 24 October 2005, whether it will publish any concerns which it raised directly with the Home Office regarding the welfare of children removed from their home in October and November 2005 with any personal or individual information properly redacted.
Reply from Robert Brown: Ministers have expressed concerns that the removal of all asylum seeker families with children should be handled sensitively, humanely and proportionately. The agreement that we are developing with the Home Office will help address these concerns.
Immigration and Asylum
Holyrood Parliamentary Questions (continued)
Sandra White (S2W-20377): To ask the Scottish Executive what the latest date is by which it expects to have a formal written protocol in place with the Home Office with regard to the role of Scottish children’s services in future removals of asylum seeker families with children.
Reply Discussions with the Home Office are being taken forward as a matter of urgency. These are complex matters and the work will be completed as quickly as possible.
Holyrood Parliamentary Motion
Patrick Harvie(S2M-3573): Dawn Raid on Ahmed Family—That the Parliament condemns the treatment endured by the Ahmed family, who were removed in a dawn raid recently from their Royston home; considers that the Home Office practice of dawn raids is unacceptable; believes that the horrific experience of the Ahmed family again demonstrates the inhumane and unnecessary methods used by the UK Government in the removal and detention of families with children prior to deportation, which cause fear and distress to the children involved as well as the wider community; further condemns the UK Government for separating 16-year-old Fahad Ahmed, who is still a child under the terms of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, from his family by deporting them to Pakistan without his knowledge; considers that any protocol which is put in place to protect the welfare of children in asylum cases must cover all children, including 16 and 17-year-olds, and calls on the Scottish Executive to demand urgently an end to the practice of dawn raids in Scotland in order to protect the welfare of the children concerned.
Westminster Parliamentary Question
Nick Clegg (19033): To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many juvenile asylum seekers are being held in (a) reception centres, (b) detention centres and (c) removal centres.
Reply from Tony McNulty: The number of children detained with their families under Immigration Act powers will change from day to day. However, internal management information shows that, as at 12 October, there were 53 children detained with their families under Immigration Act powers. These figures are not broken down into asylum and non-asylum cases.
The Home Office produces a quarterly snapshot of the number of persons held under Immigration Act powers for the last Saturday of each quarter. The number of persons who had claimed asylum at some stage and were under the age of 18 on 25 June 2005, and where they were detained, is shown in the table.
Information on the total number of persons detained under Immigration Act powers are published on the Home Office website at
For continuation of answer and further questioning on this subject see:
Immigration and Asylum (continued)
Press Release
Fresh talent signs up for Scotland
New publications
European and External Relations Committee Report on An Inquiry into the Scottish Executive’s Fresh Talent Initiative Examining the Problems It Aims to Address, Its Operation, Challenges and Prospects
Migrant Workers in the Highlands and Islands
Research report on behalf of Highlands and Islands Enterprise
Selective Admission: Making Migration Work for Britain
CRE response to the Home Office Managed Migration Consultation
News
'Fresh Talent is an early success’
Overseas students taking up offer to stay and work
Highlands’ migrant population thriving
Huge influx to Highlands spans 60 foreign tongues
Migrant workers flock to the Highlands
Migrants in plea for aid in settling
Not so Poles apart
Immigration and Asylum
News (continued)
Award for asylum seekers’ champions
Battling pupils win politics award
Grieving asylum seekers’ reprieve
Call for review after family deported without son
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Race Relations
New publicationFaith Communities and Local Government in Glasgow
Full document
Summary
News
Chinese community enjoys culture change
Faithful portrait of a city at prayer
A question of faith
Racial integration increasing, study shows
Extremists 'hijack Islam's image'
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Race Equality
Westminster Parliamentary QuestionJoan Humble (26294): To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the courses organised since October 2004 at the Joint Equality and Diversity Centre at Shrivenham; and what the attendance was on each course.
Reply from Don Touhig: Between 1 November 2004 and 4 November 2005 Joint Equality and Diversity Training Centre delivered 36 x five-day Equal Opportunities Advisers Courses to 843 middle-ranking personnel from the three Armed Services and the Ministry of Defence Civil Service. In addition, 149 Senior Civil Servants and Military Officers at Brigadier (and equivalent) level and above attended one of 11 one-day Equality and Diversity Seminars held at Shrivenham.
New publications
Scottish Executive Review of Race Equality Work
Reports of evidence received
Analysis of Consultation responses
Summary Report
Migration and social mobility: The life chances of Britain’s minority ethnic communities
A report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation thatinvestigates the impact of class background and ethnicity on social class
CRE response to the Scottish Executive Review of Scottish Digital Inclusion Policy
CRE response to the Scottish Executive consultation Advice For All: Publicly-funded assistance in Scotland
Race Equality (continued)
News
Reid welcomes multi-faith chaplains
Reid welcomes multi faith chaplains
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Racism
NewsInverness man fined for racially abusing 11-year-old boy
Racial abuse teenager pays her victim £100
One Scotland - two opinions
Publicity blitz is launched after city hate crime soars
Religions in fear over the 9/11 bigots
Teenager was axed to death 'solely for the colour of his skin'
Anthony axed to death ‘for colour of his skin'
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Other Holyrood
Holyrood Parliamentary QuestionAdam Ingram(S2W-20594): To ask the Scottish Executive what evidence it has of the efficacy of work being done in schools in respect of violence reduction and anti-bullying.
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Other Westminster
Westminster Parliamentary QuestionsAshok Kumar(26489): To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many proposals by faith organisations to open new faith schools were made in each year since 1997; and how many were successful.
Reply from Jacqui Smith: The following table shows the number of proposals made by faith organisations to open new faith schools in each year since 1997, and the number of those proposals that were subsequently approved (whether or not this was in the same year they were published).
Proposals published / Of which approved
1997 / 13 / 12
1998 / 13 / 11
1999 / 8 / 7
2000 / 13 / 12
2001 / 13 / 13
2002 / 10 / 10
2003 / 17 / 16
2004 / 15 / 13
2005 / 10 / 9
Total / 112 / 103
These figures do not include new faith schools resulting from schools amalgamating or infant and junior schools closing to be replaced by a primary school.
Other Westminster
Westminster Parliamentary Questions(continued)
Ashok Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of (a) faith schools and (b) non-faith schools have been awarded a (i) grade 1 and (ii) grade 2 rating by Ofsted inspectors. (26490)
Reply from Jacqui Smith: This is a matter for Ofsted. HM Chief Inspector, David Bell, has written to the hon. Member and a copy of his letter will be placed in the Library.
Letter from David Bell to Dr. Ashok Kumar, dated 7 November 2005:
Your recent parliamentary question has been passed to me, as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector, for reply.The tables attached show the percentage of schools judged to be highly effective (grade 1) and very effective (grade 2) by denomination during the academic year 2004/05.
A copy of this reply has been sent to Jacqui Smith and will be placed in the library of both houses.
Table 1: Percentage of primary schools judged either highly effective (grade 1) or very effective (grade 2): 2004/05
Highly effective (grade 1) / Very effective (grade 2)
Faith schools / 1 / 20
Non-faith schools / 1 / 17
Table 2: Percentage of secondary schools judged either highly effective (grade 1) or very effective (grade 2): 2004/05
Highly effective (grade 1) / Very effective (grade 2)
Faith schools / 1 / 27
Non-faith schools / 3 / 22
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Other News
Multi-lingual seminars to promote food safety systemVoluntary Sector Workforce Hub
Other News(continued)
Sector Skills Councils
Human rights and development in the real world
Speech by Secretary of State for International Development, Hilary Benn
Ending inequality is a work in progress
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Bills in Progress
** New or updated this weekHolyrood
Animal Health and Welfare Bill
Bill as Introduced
Explanatory Notes
Policy Memorandum
** Family Law Bill (Justice 1)
Stage 2 consideration of amendments
Housing Bill (Communities)
Stage 2
Human Tissue Bill (Health)
Stage 1 Report agreed but not yet published
Bills in Progress
Holyrood (continued)
Interests of Members of the Scottish Parliament Bill
Explanatory Notes
** Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice Bill (Justice 2)
Stage 1 evidence from the Scottish Retail Consortium, Glasgow Chamber of CommerceScottish Drugs Forum, Criminal Justice Community Safety Sub Group, Aberdeen Joint Alcohol and Drug Action Team and Glasgow Addiction Services
St Andrew’s Day Bank Holiday Bill (Enterprise and Culture)
Stage 1 Debate 6 October 2005 (Bill referred back to Committee)
Scottish Commissioner for Human Rights Bill(Justice 1)
Bill as Introduced
Explanatory notes
Policy Memorandum
Memorandum on delegated powers
Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Bill (Education)
Bill as Introduced
Explanatory Notes
Policy Memorandum
Westminster
Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill
First Reading House of Lords
Bills in Progress
Westminster (continued)
Equality Bill(Constitution Committee)
Third Reading, House of Lords
** Identity Cards Bill
Committee Stage, House of Lords
and
and
and
** Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill
Standing Committee amendments
Racial and Religious Hatred Bill
Report Stage
Terrorism Bill
Bill as amended
Violent Crime Reduction Bill
Explanatory Notes
Amendments
First Reading
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Consultations(closing date)
** New or updated this week
** closes this week!
Review of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act (25 November 2005)
** closes this week!
Mental Health Bill (Westminster) Consultation on Race Equality (25 November)
Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Bill (28 November 2005)
NHS Fair for All Strategic Guidance Document (30 November 2005)
NHS Scotland Fair for all Practical Guidance Document (30 November 2005)
Forced Marriage – a Wrong not a Right (5 December 2005)
** All party inquiry into antisemitism in the UK(31 December 2005)
Advancing Equality for Men and Women: Government Proposals to Introduce a Public Sector Duty to Promote Gender Equality (12 January 2006)
Establishing an Accurate Register of Charities in Scotland: OSCR (Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator) (27 January 2006)
Meeting the Charity Test: OSCR (Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator)
(27 January 2006)
Consultations (continued)
Consents and Notifications: OSCR (Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator)
(27 January 2006)
The Equalities Review (no closing date set but requests responses within the next few months)
Ethnic Minority Women at Work (no closing date given)
Equal Opportunities Commission investigation into the participation, pay and progression of ethnic minority women in the labour market.
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Events/Conferences/Training Courses